Welcome to the Forum Archive!

Years of conversation fill a ton of digital pages, and we've kept all of it accessible to browse or copy over. Whether you're looking for reveal articles for older champions, or the first time that Rammus rolled into an "OK" thread, or anything in between, you can find it here. When you're finished, check out the boards to join in the latest League of Legends discussions.

Skarner Rework Follow Through

We're really excited that the Skarner rework is now live, and we are playing him a ton on live, reading all of the forum feedback, and even watching a few Skarner streams. We are very passionate about him and we want him to be both a very healthy and fun champion for the game and a viable and balanced character.

These changes in 4.2 were targeted at improving his gameplay to accomplish a few goals:

-Enable more ability for Skarner and his opponents to display their skill
-Reduce the amount of feast/famine that Skarner can experience (when he's ahead he is unstoppable, when he's behind he has a hard time contributing at all)
-Create more defined windows of power for Skarner to create more interaction between him and his opponent

We think that the changes have accomplished these goals and we always try to release character in as balanced of a state as we can, but it is always a possibility that he is not balanced. The important thing here is that we are actively monitoring and planning on a follow up in the next patch for Skarner to make sure that he is balanced and viable.

Thanks again for all of your feedback, and we are always actively working to improve the game (and in this case Skarner). I'll come back to this thread to answer questions if you have any.

I have played Skarner since Season 2, and before his rework even though he was not a top tier pick, he was still viable with his amazing early game damage, sticking power, and late game peel and initiation. This rework has proven that riot had no idea what they were doing when they reworked Skarner because they took away what made him unique. Gone is Skarner's amazing aoe peel, and the overall threat of him being in melee range of an enemy (latr sticking power). I propose a rework that makes Skarner the champion he deserves to be, a champion that is an absolute monster once he gets into melee range,while still having counter play in the sense that he can be kited (but not severly)

Base stat changes: the only thing that needs to be changed is his mana/mana per level, as well as his mana regen increase his mana pool to 250 (+ 50 per level)and his mana per 5 to 7 per 5 (+ .7 per level)

Reason for change :This mana buff should fix his early dependancy on blue buff which is a huge problem for Skarner at the moment.

Changes to Crystal Slash (Q): Bring back the pre-rework mechanics to Skarner's Q ( no more attack speed stacks, perma slows for dayz), make the slow 35% at all ranks to help Skarner's early ganking pressure (compared to 20%-40% based on rank). Finally, the scaling should change to 60% total AD scaling (compared to 80% bonus AD scaling)

Reason for change: The old Skarner Q made him unique as a champion, and was the reason why you would not want to face an enemy skarner in melee range. Finally, with the change to the scaling on Crystal Slash, it will do a lot more damage early game because it scales with total AD ,and with Skarner's base ad being 130 at level 18, doing a lot of damage without the need to buy any AD.

Changes to Crystalline Exoskeleton (W): Decrease CD to 14 seconds compared to 16. Bring the attack speed back on the W, however, increase the attack speed to 40%-60% based on rank(compared to 30%-50%), while having the attack speed remain even when the shield is broken.remove the ramp up on the movement speed bonus, changing to a steady 25%-35% movement speed increase based on rank. finally, have the scaling on the sheild changed from 80% AP, to 40 percent bonus armor and Majic resist.

Reason for change: These changes will allow Skarner to not rely on a ramp up time to case/escape, which does not have a satisfying pay off for how much movement speed is given (imagine comparing it to Hecarim/Rammus). having the attack speed without the shield needed will allow Skarner to clear exceptionally well. Finally, the scaling changes make the Shield on Skarner quite terrifying buy building tanky (which is what you should be doing on a champion like Skarner). Having a lot of resistances that also giving a larger virtual health pool is also quite strong, so this might need to be toned down a bit, but the synergy is nice.

Changes to Fracture: CD changed to 10 seconds, decrease the range to 600, with the width of the spell increased significantly (around 250). Make the ability being able to cast while moving. Targets who are hit by Fracture are marked for 6 seconds, and when hit by one of Skarner's attacks/Crystal Slash, stun the target for 1 second. If they are hit again, Skarner is healed for 50-150 health based on rank scaling with 5 percent of his bonus health (is only able to heal twice with each cast of Fracture, with the second proc healing only 50 percent of the base/scaling)

Reason for change: This change allows Skarner to gank quite effectively pre 6 (if he is manages to get in range of the target. Having fracture being able to cast while moving will make it feel a lot better when ganking with it. The potential to land an aoe stun works amazing when playing the role as a peeler (which is my personal play style) the duration is short because it should not be overpowering compared to his ult. finally the sustain portion of the spell stays relevant throughout the game, and gives the help needed for lane Skarner.

Let me know what you guys think (Keep in mind that the numbers are not official)